(L-R): Lex Van Den Herik and Max Ponsen
21-28 August, Rotterdam, NED
In age-old Dutch tradition, home-team supporters swam to congratulate their countrymen moments after they’d won the U23 men’s eights final at the 2016 World Rowing Championships held in the Netherlands in August.
Combining junior, U23 and senior world rowing events into a single, eight day championship regatta, the ‘mega worlds’, as its unofficial moniker became, proved a spectacle of both world-class rowing and logistical planning. Competing for 126 medals were 1905 rowers, racing on the Willem-Alexander Baan in the small village of Zevenhuizen, just outside Rotterdam. With 71 nations represented, it was the largest ever world rowing championships.
The junior events, for rowers aged under 19, produced four new world’s best times on the last day of racing. Italy, who have invested heavily into developing junior internationals in recent years, performed best at the medal table for the age group, with three golds and a total of seven medals.